Deployable Payloads with Starbug

We explore the range of wide field multi-object instrument concepts taking advantage of the unique capabilities of the Starbug focal plane positioning concept. Advances to familiar instrument concepts, such as fiber positioners and deployable fiber-fed IFUs, are discussed along with image relays and deployable active sensors. We conceive deployable payloads as components of systems more traditionally regarded as part of telescope systems rather than instruments - such as adaptive optics and ADCs. Also presented are some of the opportunities offered by the truly unique capabilities of Starbug, such as microtracking to apply intra-field distortion correction during the course of an observation.Comment: 12 pages, 8 figures, to be published in Proc. SPIE 6273 "Opto-Mechanical Technologies for Astronomy

Infrared fibres in astronomical instrumentation

For several years multi-object spectroscopy systems have been available for carrying out survey work in the visible region, but until very recently there has not been a system for the near infrared region. This thesis describes the design, manufacture and commissioning of the first multi-object fibre system for near infrared spectroscopy. SMIRFS (Spectroscopic Multi-object Infrared Fibre System) is a prototype system that has been designed at the Department of Physics in Durham to couple the Cassegrain focus of the United Kingdom InfraRed Telescope (UKIRT) to a cooled long slit infrared spectrograph (CGS4). Two different fibre bundles are available, each containing 14 fibres. One bundle is made from zirconium fluoride fibres, for K band spectroscopy and the second bundle is made from silica fibres, for J and H band spectroscopy. During the design process of SMIRFS a number of issues were addressed. These included; the characteristics of infrared fibres, in particular their throughput and FRD, atmospheric features in the near infra-red and suitable sky subtraction techniques, fibre preparation and evaluation, the use of microlenses for coupling slow focal ratio beams with fibres, and the thermal emissions from the warm material of the instrument. These, along with the design, manufacture and testing of the SMIRFS are described in detail, including the fibre evaluation results and estimates for throughput, instrument thermal background derived from the commissioning run data. Finally, there is a brief discussion on the development of infrared fibre system for astronomy

Advances in infrared and imaging fibres for astronomical instrumentation

Optical fibres have already played a huge part in ground based astronomical instrumentation, however, with the revolution in photonics currently taking place new fibre technologies and integrated optical devices are likely to have a profound impact on the way we manipulate light in the future. The Anglo-Australian Observatory, along with partners at the Optical Fibre Technology Centre of the University of Sydney, is investigating some of the developing technologies as part of our Astrophotonics programme. In this paper we discuss the advances that have been made with infrared transmitting fibre, both conventional and microstructured, in particular those based on flouride glasses. Flouride glasses have a particularly wide transparent region from the UV through to around 7um, whereas silica fibres, commonly used in astronomy, only transmit out to about 2um. We discuss the impact of advances in fibre manufacture that have greatly improved the optical, chemical resistance and physical properties of the flouride fibres. We also present some encouraging initial test results for a modern imaging fibre bundle and imaging fibre taper.Comment: 11 pages, 7 figures, to be published in Proc. SPIE 6273 Optomechanical Technologies for Astronom

Mature Aged Students in Teacher Education

Mature age students in Teacher Education (21 and over on first enrollment) differ notably in what they look for in their course from the younger students. Analysis of a survey of third year Diploma of Teaching students’ ratings of the relevance of units for teaching showed that students over 25 years of age rated the Education and Educational Psychology units significantly more relevant to teaching than did the younger students. The older students also rated Language Arts units and a Remedial and Special Education Unit as significantly more relevant and Art Education units , Physical Education units and Science Education units as significantly less relevant to teaching than did the younger students

Work Experience and Trainee Teachers

An educational policy problem currently receiving some scrutiny is the advisabi lity of school teachers being persons with experience of work and life situations outside of educational institutions (See Williams, 1979, Vol. 1, p.99 and The Schools Commission, 1979). Proposals on this matter include enrolment of more mature age students in teacher training; requiring teacher trainee students to have significant work experience prior to or during their period of training; providing teachers with seminars and other interactive opportunities for improving their knowledge of industry, the world of work and the wider society; and providing opportunities for secondment of teachers to industrial organisations for significant periods

Physical activity, academic and developmental measures in older primary school-children:A principal components analysis

Relationships between physical activity variables, developmental measures, socio-economic status, academic test scores, perceptual-motor tests and gender were examined for 261 year-six primary school students (137 females) with mean age = 12.3 years, SD = 0.3. Characteristics of child development were examined to identify those aspects most weighted towards academic performance. An exploratory principal components analysis with varimax rotation was undertaken. Principal components analysis showed that 59% of the variance in the data-set could be explained by four sub-types. Scores for perception of verticality of a rod against a tilted frame and for frontal plane semi-tandem dynamic postural stability loaded with scores for reading, writing, numeracy and socio-economic status on the first sub-type called the “Academic-Cognitive” component accounted for 22.24% of total variance with an eigenvalue of 3.3. Other components with Eigenvalues > 1 were “Pubescent Development”, “Fitness, Strength and Body Mass” and “Physical Activity and Motor Coordination”. The grouping of perceptual-motor and postural coordination tests with academic scores suggests possibilities for activities having synergy with academic performance and suggests further investigation to ascertain the extent of the associations

The reformatting advantage: photonics vs conventional optics!

In recent decades, spectroscopic capabilities have been significantly enhanced by new technological developments, in particular spatial reformatting. Spatial reformatting allows multiple functionalities: the observation of a larger area of sky, obtaining the spectra of all spatial elements under the same atmospheric conditions; modification of the shape and size of the field of view; focal-ratio conversion for the optimized coupling between the telescope and the spectrograph; increase in the spatial and spectral resolving power; the observation of multiple objects; homogeneity in the illumination; scrambling of spatial and/or phase induced structure with the instrument, thus improving the system stability; relocation of the exit pupil, especially important for telecentric systems. The impact of reformatting and the breadth of science cases is so great that many alternative methods and technologies have been proposed: image slicers using refractive or reflective solutions; optical fibers with different core sizes and geometries; microlenses used in isolation or combined with fibers and more recently, photonic devices such as Photonic lanterns to produce modal decomposition. In this paper, a comparison between all currently available options is presented, with a detailed analysis of their advantages and limitations and a proposal for a new reformatter combining slicers and photonic devices. This proposal presents the advantages of the other alternatives and additionally offers: minimization of focal-ratio degradation; produces image and modal decomposition; improves the throughput along the spectral range, increases the spectral resolving power and adds the functionality of scrambling. All of these advantages are combined in a system where photonic and astronomical instrumentation capabilities are joined in an innovative solution with many applications, like for example, the Extremely Large Telescope

PREDICTING THE OUTCOME OF RODENTICIDE TRIALS AGAINST NORWAY RATS LIVING ON FARMS

Difenacoum and bromadiolone treatments against Norway rats may fail because: 1) the animals eat little or no bait, 2) reinvasion rapidly offsets any success, or 3) the population contains resistant individuals. By monitoring bait takes and employing independent measures of rat activity such as tracking plates, it is possible to identify, often in the early stages of a treatment, patterns that indicate the contribution of each of these causes to the eventual outcome. If there is no bait take from the majority of bait points visited by rats in the first week then the treatment is unlikely to be successful, no matter how long it continues. Furthermore, treatments carried out on arable farms, where cereals are stored and the environment is relatively undisturbed, are likely to be less successful than those carried out on livestock farms, where alternative food may also be abundant but where the environment is less predictable. Bait takes that persist at the same bait points for longer than 16 days strongly suggest the presence of resistant rats, while immigration may be significantly affecting the treatment if takes recur at more than 30% of points after a period of seven days. Once a given problem has been identified remedial measures can be taken

Long period grating in multicore optical fiber:an ultra-sensitive vector bending sensor for low curvatures

Long period grating was UV inscribed into a multicore fiber consisting of 120 single mode cores. The multicore fiber that hosts the grating was fusion spliced into a single mode fiber at both ends. The splice creates a taper transition between the two types of fiber that produces a nonadiabatic mode evolution; this results in the illumination of all the modes in the multicore fiber. The spectral characteristics of this fiber device as a function of curvature were investigated. The device yielded a significant spectral sensitivity as high as 1.23 nm/m-1 and 3.57 dB/m-1 to the ultra-low curvature values from 0 to 1 m-1. This fiber device can also distinguish the orientation of curvature experienced by the fiber as the long period grating attenuation bands producing either a blue or red wavelength shift. The finite element method (FEM) model was used to investigate the modal behavior in multicore fiber and to predict the phase-matching curves of the long period grating inscribed into multicore fiber